


Out of Everyone in the Room I Only I Have Eyes for You

by acrylic_gold



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alien OC, Hunk (Voltron) is so Pure, Hunk is the best bro, Langst, M/M, Oneshot, Pining Lance (Voltron), a lil langst, allura is done™, hinted - Freeform, klance, my friend really wanted me to upload this, someone help him, well - it was a oneshot hehehe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-17
Updated: 2017-08-07
Packaged: 2018-10-06 09:50:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10331942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acrylic_gold/pseuds/acrylic_gold
Summary: The paladins are once again at another celebration for their victory against another fight against the Galra. Despite the beautiful faces in the room, the blue paladin can only seem to focus on one thing.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> yeah my friend was like "UPLOAD THIS TO Ao3!!" so I wrote this in less than an hour so apologies for any mistakes I didn't correct.
> 
> enjoy x

It had been the end of a rather gruelling mission, and the paladins of Voltron were all tired - to say the least. Regardless, the natives of the newly-rescued planet insisted that they throw a celebration for their heroes and saviours, it was the least they could do for the defenders of the universe, their king declared, and so the festivities soon began. The paladins, along with Princess Allura and Coran were all adorned in the fancy dress of the planet, covered in shimmering golds and silvers with rich colours which seemed to bring out the best of everyone’s features.

 

The natives of the planet, the Grugard, were tall, slender creatures with icy blue skin dotted with what appeared to be navy freckles and deep hazel eyes that seemed to glow the darker the sky turned. Their hair, or what appeared to be hair, fell long past their narrow faces, broad shoulders and ended near the bottom of their legs. To any observer, the Grugard were an intimidating race who had an haunting yet enchanting look about them, the most striking of these being the Grand Princess of the Grugard, Princess Kilhael. Princess Kilhael was not a face easily missed by the rest of the loyal court or her loyal subjects: her facial features seemed to look sharper, pointier, but nevertheless refined, icy blue skin seemed to glow in their version of ‘moonlight’ which gave the princess an almost ethereal glow, her eyes seemed to burn a brighter shade of the Grugard’s darker hazel eyes and her voice was gentle, yet firm. Her beauty was only accentuated by the navy and silver gown she wore that seemed to reflect the dark beauty of the night sky. Needless to say, she was stunning to most and that seemed to be recognised most if not all the attendees in the room, however, a certain blue paladin who certainly made a point of addressing when he saw something he found beautiful didn’t say a word. His silence on the subject seemed to astonish the green and yellow paladin, and so they decided to further investigate the situation.

 

“So…Lance, what do you think of the Grand Princess over there? Really something, huh?” Pidge enquired, nudging the blue paladin’s shoulder. His eyes seemed to be focusing on the Grand Princess, but with so many bodies in the room it was difficult to identify where his gaze was actually focused. What Lance had said afterwards caught the girl by surprise.

 

“Um yeah, yeah, sure.” Lance mumbled, his gaze not even following the person in question, his eyes seemed to follow beyond that to something far greater out of his reach. 

 

“Yeah, I’m not so convinced on that buddy,” Hunk noted, trying to get a visual on the mystery person that was captivating his best friend’s attention, “is it someone else? Who are you looking at?”

 

“N-no one Hunk,” Lance seemed to reluctantly break out of his trance there and then trying to dismiss the situation as best as he could, “anyway, it doesn’t matter.” He mumbled a little quieter, but both Hunk and Pidge had managed to hear him.

 

“Well, back to the topic of the Grand Princess, here she comes.” Pidge announced to the small group, pointing in the direction of the Grand Princess gracefully making her way over to them, a small smile adorning her face, eyes bright and vibrant. Both the yellow and green paladin seemed to notice that the approaching princess seemed to have a rather awe-struck expression on her face with a slight purple colouring (a blush maybe?) on her face and that her eyes seemed to be fixated on Lance. The two looked at each other and figured that it would be best to give the two some privacy. “So we’re just going to, uh…” Pidge started, realising that she didn’t have time to formulate a believable excuse.

 

“Is that Allura calling on us Pidge? I think it is Pidge, yeah we’d better go speak to her in a hurry it might be an emergency you never know Pidge…” whilst rambling on, Hunk grabbed the smaller paladin by the wrist and seemed to drag her across the floor in the direction of princess Allura who seemed absorbed in a conversation with one of the members of the royal court. Lance watched the whole small scale fiasco in mild amusement and confusion, and once he watched his two friends wander off he turned his attention to the princess who was making a beeline for him. He straightened his posture, fixed his hair and let his face fall into a natural confident and calm expression he wore when dealing with higher class members of a new planet.

 

“Greetings, blue paladin,” princess Kilhael began, “I must come to thank you again for all you have done for us here - our people are free because of you and Voltron.” Her already contended expression seemed to transform into a happier smile. Lance, nodded, his grin growing.

 

“Honestly, it’s no problem princess - it’s what we do,” Lance said, looking into the eyes of the princess. She seemed to shift her eye contact slightly.

 

“It must be truly amazing to be a paladin of Voltron, is it not?”

 

“Yeah, it’s really amazing to go flying in space, catching bad guys and freeing prisoners and planets - even if we have to do early morning drills.” The princess’s smile grew with the colour to her cheeks deepening and she gave a small bubbling giggle before beginning to converse with Lance. Lance a few months ago would have revelled in this sort of attention and would have been boasting of his bravery and good looks, watching the princess giggle cutely and tell him how amazing he truly is. The princess hanging on his every word, her lovestruck gaze never wavering from him, her small touches on his arm causing shivers and his face to break out in a bright red blush - all of that would have been possible a few months ago. That would be if he could focus on the princess in front of him for more than five minutes, his eyes straying from the person in front of him, seemingly casually looking in the room when all the time he knew his gaze was longing, searching.

 

Finally, the blue paladin managed to fully focus on the Grugard Grand Princess in front of him.

 

“It must be wonderful,” she began, “to see the captivating and beautiful sights as you travel through space?” Lance looked at the princess in front of him and nodded with a smile on his face, before raising and turning his head slightly away to find what his eyes had been searching for all night.

 

“Yeah,” he sighed a look of wonder on his face, “some things are just…really breathtaking and pretty, you just can’t look away…” Lance’s smile seemed to widen at this statement as his blue-eyed gaze travelled across the room to fall on shimmering, fiery violet eyes.


	2. chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some time after meeting with the Grugard, the blue paladin seems more and more distracted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NOTE: i want to thank everyone for their comments! and i couldn't resist wanting to continue this after people asking for another chapter, so here we go (second and final(?) chapter).
> 
> this takes a few weeks after the celebration with the Grugard just so y'all know 
> 
> also i apologise for any mistakes, this is a quick first draft :'D
> 
> enjoy x

 

It had been about twenty minutes into the briefing of their latest mission and Lance still wasn’t paying attention. His gaze seemed to be fixated on the window into space, the ceiling above, everywhere else in the room except where he was _supposed_ to be looking. He had a dreamy-like expression on his face and his mind seemed to be in another world altogether, much to the chagrin of pretty much everyone else in the room.

 

“ _Lance_.” Lance was startled out of his thoughts and jumped back in alarm, his eyes now nervously looking at Allura’s stern gaze.

 

“Y-yeah? What’s happening, Princess?”

 

“Lance, you’ve not been listening to a single word I’ve been saying. If we’re going to be working as a team you need to pay attention.” Lance’s shoulders drooped, slightly embarrassed about being scolded in front of the group and for being caught for not listening. It wasn’t his fault though, how could anyone pay attention when you’re thinking about-

 

“Lance! What did I just say?” Allura looked positively cross now, Lance gulped nervously and tried to rack his brain for something, anything.

 

“Umm..you said that I need to pay attention if we’re in a team?”

 

“That’s what I said thirty ticks ago!” Okay, now she seemed to be getting more vexed with Lance by the second, things weren’t looking good for the blue paladin.

 

“He’s probably too busy thinking about that Grand Princess we met a while ago,” Keith interjected, Lance’s lips parted in shock and his eyes widened, his eyebrows forming into a frown, “I mean, she was all over him when we were there, he probably can’t think of anything else.” Lance’s face changed immediately from crestfallen to irritated as he glared at Keith, clearly unimpressed with what he had to say. The blue paladin then turned to Allura and the rest of his team.

 

“T-that’s not true!” Lance said a little too loudly. His voice lowered to a mumble, “I’m just…a little distracted today.”

 

“Yeah, we kinda noticed you didn’t seem as focused as you usually are, are you okay bro?” Hunk, the best friend a bro could ever ask for, asked, a tone of worry notable in his voice.

 

“Well, we don’t have time for distractions. Zarkon is still on the move and we don’t have time to keep getting distracted like this.” Allura stated, her patience now wearing paper-thin.

 

“Yeah, about that Grand Princess.” Keith muttered, loud enough for Lance to hear.

 

“Keith-“ Shiro began to step in before he was interrupted by Lance.

 

“Wanna repeat that, Mullet?” Lance turned to look at Keith, his eyes bright with annoyance, his hands clenched at his sides. Keith’s eyes seemed to be blazing with anger at this point as he swivelled around until he was directly facing lance, his frown ever deepening.

 

“I said-”

 

“ENOUGH!” Everyone’s attention turned from the bubbling argument between the blue and red paladins to the princess, whose eyes were fiery with rage at this point. “I will not tolerate this! Lance,” Everybody looked at the named paladin, whose eyes were wide with worry, “until you can find a way to concentrate when we are having an important discussion and _not_ cause distraction to the others, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” A pin could have been heard dropping from the dead silence that settled into the room, all eyes now focused on Lance, save for the princess who was furiously typing away on the control panel before she brought up the second stage of their plan. Lance’s shoulders drooped even further and he trudged out of the room, his eyes downcast and ashamed. The tangible tension in the room only seemed to settle a little when the doors of the observation desk whooshed shut and the blue paladin was no longer present.

 

——

Lance wandered the hall for what seemed to a few minutes, frustrated. _It’s not my fault,_ he thought to himself, _I was paying attention_ …Lance’s eyes wandered across the halls and he continued to walk until he found himself in the training deck, and sat in the middle of the floor. His eyes looking around the room until he found a small mark on the floor, where Keith’s sword hit when he did that really cool attack, he seemed so focused that day. His eyes burning with determination as he, with ease, defeated the gladiator bot in front of him. His hair was tied back that day into a cute little ponytail that bounced as he moved-

 

 _No, no, no, no. I need to focus._ Lance rubbed at his eyes and shook his head, trying to block the distracting thoughts from his head. Lance took in a long breath before lying down on the floor to face the ceiling. As he exhaled, he hummed a little tune to himself to help him focus his thoughts. It was a song he heard on the radio once back at home, he couldn’t remember the name of it, but all he knew that it was really catchy. The happy melody he hummed seemed to do the trick until it became slower, and soon he was humming a tune he heard at the party with the Grugard; it was a strange melody with instruments Lance had never seen or heard of, they made weird sounds that strangely enough seemed to come together to make a calming song, one that Lance could see himself dancing to. With a smile on his face, Lance imagined the scene: the melody played softly, slowly as he danced in the stars, wearing his favourite blue tunic from the aliens they rescued a few galaxies away, his arms around his partner who had a blinding smile, wearing the outfit they received from the Grugard. The silver seams of the outfit only accentuated the rich red of their outfit and the silver shimmered like stars in the night sky, but nothing stood out quite as clearly as their enchanting, violet eyes.

 

Lance groaned at he covered his face with his arms and rolled over so his stomach was lying flat against the cool floor. He buried his head further into his arms and sighed, with an air of frustration in his voice.

 

“This is going to be a long _long_ day.”

—-

 

“Lance, on your right!”

 

Lance turned quickly to shoot down a robot fast approaching him, before catching sight of another robot approaching Pidge from behind and swiftly shooting it down.

 

“Nice job, Lance.” Lance could hear Shiro’s voice through the comms on his helmet. The training room was electric with energy as the four junior paladins fought their way through a crowd of gladiator bots, incessant on not letting them stop for a second to breath. Through constant training and bonding exercises, the paladins were becoming much more efficient on the battlefield, not just as individuals, but as a unit, as real paladins and defenders of the universe. They fought, all in sync, all in focus, moving towards a singular goal; to win.

 

The last gladiator bot was shot down by Hunk’s bayard and soon the doors leading to the command centre opened with Allura, Shiro and Coran all standing on the other side, looking pleased.

 

“Marvellous job, paladins!” Allura chimed, clapping her hands together.

 

“You all did a really great job out there, guys.” Shiro added, a smile on his face.

 

“Yes, well done all of you!” Coran added in cheerily.

“It’s good to see you all learning how to work together more efficiently,” Allura started again, “you have all improved tremendously since last time.” Allura then fixed her gaze on Lance, “I have to say Lance, I’m rather impressed with how focused you were on the training field. I hope you will keep it up when we come against a real enemy.” Lance beamed at the praise and looked excitedly towards his friends and Hunk gave him a thumbs up whilst Pidge gave him a smile of approval. Everyone then began to shuffle out of the room, looking forward to a well deserved lunch, chattering excitedly about the new progress they had made. Lance, however, didn't move. He looked down at his bayard as it materialised back into its handheld shape with a smile on his face. It looks like today was going good after his short period of becoming so easily distracted.

 

“Lance. Are you moving?” Lance’s head shot up to see Keith standing at the door frame, looking at him expectantly.

 

“Uh, yeah, go on ahead, I’ll be out in a minute.”

 

“Sure. And Lance?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Good job today, you didn’t get distracted this time.” Lance’s eyes widened slightly at Keith’s comment. Before he could retort with anything, Keith had already gotten impatient and left the room to join everyone else in the dining hall. Lance’s smile widened and he slowly made his way to the dining hall also, with more of a skip to his step and his cheeks dusted lightly with a rosy blush.

 

Today was going to be a good day.


	3. conversations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance really doesn't like talking about his feelings. Thankfully, he has good friends who will listen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so this chapter is much longer than the other ones !! i kind of wanted to focus on lance's internal conflict in this chapter << would have also focused on Keith's side of things, but that will come next chapter >>
> 
> comments/kudos/etc. always appreciated!
> 
> enjoy x

_Stupid Keith. Stupid mullet. Always thinking he can do better - always doing better._

 

The words repeated like a mantra in Lance’s head as he angrily paced in his room. Today had been a not-so-good day and had his butt handed to him on a silver platter by none other than the flight and fight prodigy himself. Lance threw his hands in the air and let out a frustrated noise, and continued pacing in his room before he stopped and buried his head in his hands. He was sick of feeling like this - the constant feeling of being in someone else’s shadow. Always feeling inferior, always feeling not quite good enough, just not quite reaching that goal. He couldn’t really pinpoint a time all these feelings had started; maybe it was when he first enrolled to the Garrison and everyone gushed over Lance’s skills and grades, he was practically the best student of his year - and some of his teachers and fellow students made a point of that, that he was a ‘figure to look up to’. Everything was good: he was well-liked, popular, and had made friends with the cooler students at the Garrison, he was praised by the intellectual students, and even the older students. Every night he could, he would call his family happily about the wonderful day he had, about how well he was doing, and how he promised no matter what he would become and fighter pilot and make them proud. Everything was good. Everything was so so good. 

 

Then his whole world shattered.

 

“Lance?” Lance quickly assumed a more natural position as he heard his room door whoosh open and his best friend, Hunk, was standing by the door wearing an apron, “Buddy, lunch was out like five minutes ago, you okay?” Lance walked out of his room to meet his friend, placing an arm around his shoulder and wore his signature smile.

 

“Yeah, I’m fine, guess I just forgot.” Lance looked at his friend with a reassuring smile, but Hunk didn’t seem to convinced.

 

“Are you sure, dude? The only times you missed lunch were when-“

 

“Hunk,” the blue paladin stared at his friend with a more serious expression, “I’m fine, I was just a little distracted.” Hunk looked back at his friend, internally debating with himself if he should push the matter any further. Back at the Garrison Lance would often skip lunch, dinner, any extracurricular activities, hanging out, or just about anything if his mood dipped enough - if he couldn’t escape the negative thoughts that consumed him. It had become an unspoken agreement between them that yes these things happened but Hunk did what he could to help his friend, whether it was bringing him out his room to do something fun or to just simply let him be and let him calm down.

 

“Okay, I believe you,” Hunk’s expression changed from worried to sporting a large grin, leading his friend to the kitchen as he happily and swiftly changed the subject, “now I’ve gotta show you this new recipe that I came up with last night, you’re going to love it buddy…” Lance listened to his friend talk enthusiastically about ingredients from different planets they explored and new equipment that he found in the castle’s kitchen. The blue paladin wore a small genuine smile as he looked at the other paladin next to him. He was so grateful for what Hunk had done for him in the Garrison when he was like this, and even in space when everyone was far away from home and wanted nothing other than to see their families and sleep in their own beds, Hunk was still as selfless as ever when helping him. He always made an effort to make sure he didn’t get too upset, too lost in his thoughts by intervening when Lance just felt too out of his depth. He might not be the best in the Garrison anymore, he may have lost his dream to become a fighter pilot, his popularity, his reputation as an amazing student, his family, and even some friends. But being in space with his best friend who truly cared for him, and he truly cared for, being in a team with truly the most amazing people he has ever met, and doing what he would have never been able to do at the Garrison made him think that maybe he was one of the luckiest guys ever.

 

 

Lance and Hunk entered the kitchen to have all eyes on them, particularly Lance. He gulped slightly and attempted to subtly hide behind Hunk, but was promptly stopped by having the larger paladin place an arm around his shoulder.

 

“Found him, he was in his room reading.” Hunk declared cheerfully, whilst Lance made his way to his regular seat beside Keith, giving Hunk a silent look of thank you before sitting down to look in awe at the delicious looking space food that Hunk had created before him.

 

“Reading? Didn’t think you did much of that Lance,” Pidge commented. Feeling another blow to his self esteem, Lance was about to retort with a sarcastic comment but was shocked but also not surprised when Hunk spoke before him.

 

“Oh, he reads loads. You know back at the Garrison he had books for each language he spoke - and some music books as well.” Hunk stated proudly. Lance’s eyes widened slightly - he wasn’t aware Hunk was going to talk about that specifically but what grateful nevertheless that Hunk was there to defend his case.

 

“I didn’t know you spoke multiple languages Lance,” Shiro commented, “which ones do you speak?” All eyes were on him now, and if Lance was nervous, he didn’t let it show at all. He was back to his happy confident self.

 

“Well, Spanish is my native language, then I learned English, French, Vietnamese and a little Korean in my spare time.” Everyone’s, except for Hunk’s, eyes were wide with surprise.

 

“That’s pretty impressive, Lance,” Keith stated, before promptly turning his attention back to his food, “how do you know so many?” Lance was practically beaming internally at his praise from Keith. He had to keep it together.

 

“Well, most if not all my family speak Spanish since we lived in Cuba, I learned English in school and was taught by my family and just picking it up in other places, French I learned in school and from a pen pal I had for a few years, Vietnamese from our neighbours and taught myself some Korean whilst I was in the Garrison.”

 

“Fascinating, I did not think it was possible for humans to be so diverse in language speaking,” Allura stated, looking around the table, “do any of you speak other languages?”

 

“Well, I have some German family, so I do speak German when they visit but I’m not fluent.” Pidge said, shrugging her shoulders.

 

“I speak English and Samoan,” Hunk took another mouthful of his delicious cooking, “I’ve tried to teach Lance and Pidge a couple of phrases here and there.”

 

“Amazing,” Allura breathed, “what about you, Shiro, Keith?”

 

“English, Japanese and a little Vietnamese but not a lot,” Shiro smiled, “what about you, Keith?”

 

“Umm..English and a little Korean.” Keith’s interest seemed to be fully on his food now as the rest of the table were fully engaged on explaining to Allura and Coran the different languages of the Earth and their history. Ever couple of minutes, Lance would glance subtly over at Keith, who seemed to be more silent than usual. Around the fourth time he looked over at the red paladin, he was startled to find a pair of annoyed purple eyes were looking right back at him.

 

“What is it, Lance?” Keith grumbled. The other occupants at the table looked at the scene before them, the conversation coming to a temporary halt.

 

“What? What are you talking about?” Caught.

 

“You keep staring at me! Is there something on my face or what?” Keith’s eyes glanced to the table again and he self-consciously wiped at his cheek and fixed his hair.  

 

“I’m not! You’re just brooding more than usual and it’s distracting.” Lance crossed his arms and huffed, turning away from the red paladin. Keith raised up his arms in exasperation.

“I’m not brooding! And if I was, how could that possibly be distracting to you?”

 

“Umm? Because your bad mood vibes are spreading across the table, dude.” Lance gestured tied across the table, looking at the others with a look that screamed _please agree with me please agree with me_. Unfortunately, the rest of the paladins, plus the princess and advisor were not on the same page by the look on their faces.

 

“Well, no one else seems to register my “bad mood vibes” apart from you.”

 

At that statement Lance’s cheeks were dusted very lightly with a rosy pink, “well, I have to sit next to you! No one else does - so they don’t see the brooding close up!” Lance and Keith were now practically nose to nose, with Lance pointing in Keith’s direction. Both of their faces were twisted into scowls.

 

“I just _told_ you I’m not brooding I’m-”

 

“Yeah, sure thing Mullet-”

 

“What have I told you about calling me that? I’ve asked you several times to stop and-”

 

“Well, why don’t you-”

 

“I HAVE HAD IT! ENOUGH YOU TWO!” Allura slammed her hands on the table, her bright blue eyes ablaze with anger. Everyone at the table jumped at the princess’s loud outburst but rightfully stayed silent, well, except for Lance and Keith.

 

“But he was the one who-”

 

“Oh, don’t you dare try to blame this on me, Keith-”

 

“I SAID ENOUGH.” Allura stood up and approached the two paladins, who both quickly shrank back in their seats and began to regret ever opening their mouths. “Both of you have done nothing but act like children when you’re together, so I have no other option but to send you into separate rooms until you both calm down.” Both Lance and Keith looked at each other then to the princess, who didn't look as if she was going to stop her intense stare at the two until they left the dining room, which they did.

 

“I know they argue sometimes, but it’s usually not this bad…” Hunk sighed, “I wonder what’s wrong with them.”

 

“I’m sure they’ll figure it out,” Pidge commented, looking at her now empty bowl before getting out of her seat, “well, I’ve got some upgrades that I’d like to work on, so I’ll be in my room if anyone needs me.” With that, only Allura, Coran and the yellow and black paladin were left in the room. Allura returned to her seat, allowing herself to calm down as Coran explained some upgrades that needed to be made to the castle. In those moments, Shiro turned round to Hunk to have their own conversation.

 

“Hunk, could you do me a favour?”

 

“Um, sure thing Shiro.”

 

“Could you maybe speak to Lance and figure out what’s going on? He and Keith seem more bothered with each other than before and it could begin to have an affect on Voltron if they don’t figure it out.” Hunk looked at his leader for a moment whilst considering what he said. Lance was not a huge fan for talking about his problems, and although he ranted about Keith more than enough times, he was never really talking about what his real issue with him was, he was just repeating the same argument over and over again, ‘ _He’s just always trying to do better, he just thinks he’s so great - well he’s not Hunk. I’m going to be the best fighter pilot there ever was!_ ’ However, he knew that this tension between his two friends couldn’t go on for much longer, or it would really begin to affect the team dynamic and even the formation of Voltron. Hunk sighed. He would have to, for the sake of the team, ignore Lance’s desire to avoid topics and just confront him on what ever issues he was having, and try to get him to sort it out from there.

 

“Okay, I’ll do it.” Shiro was looking expectantly at Hunk whilst he sat in silence thinking of an answer. Relief flooded his features when Hunk agreed to talking to Lance.

 

“Thanks Hunk, I know this won’t be the easiest task. But I know you both trust each other, and I know you’re a good friend to Lance so I have no doubts you will approach this in the best way.” Hunk practically beamed at the praise, nodded his head enthusiastically and finished the rest of his lunch, deciding that it would be wise to allow Lance to calm down before speaking to him about anything.

 

 

—————————————————————-

 

 

It had been about a couple of hours and Lance was lying on his bed staring at the ceiling, allowing his thoughts to swim around in his head, unfiltered and free. He train of thought returned to earlier that day before he was called to lunch, about how annoyed he was with Keith, about how it was _his_ fault that everything went wrong for him at the Garrison because of him.

 

 _‘Everything was going good until that day at the training simulator,’_ Lance thought to himself, ‘ _if only he hadn’t shown me up. Maybe those older kids wouldn’t have laughed at me-’_ The memory played in his head of that moment again and again and again, looking at every detail, every bit of dialogue.

 

_“Oh you think you’re so hot, Kogane? Let’s see you beat this score!”_

 

_“Mcclain,” one of the older students chimed in, “you haven’t even been on this simulator yet, I wouldn’t be so quick to say you’ll pass it with flying colours.”_

 

_“Well, if Kogane can do it so can I!”_

 

_“Yeah, but he’s been getting special training from-” Lance didn’t pay much more attention to what was being said by one of the older students who was part of the crowd to watch this Kogane kid who was labelled ‘the best student in the Garrison’. Lance’s title. His title. He marched into the simulator and was going to prove all of them wrong and wipe that smug look off Kogane’s face._

 

_Lance was dead silent as he stepped out the simulator to the sound of a laughing crowd and a pat on the back from the same senior student._

 

_“I told ya, kid. Didn’t stand a chance. Don’t worry about it so much, he’s been trained by the best y’know.”_

“Hey Lance?” Hunk knocked on his door and waited until Lance came to the door to open it for him.

 

“Hey, buddy. What’s up?”

 

“Can…we talk? In private?”

 

“Um, sure sure. Come in.” Lance stepped aside to let his larger friend in, inviting him to sit down on the bed with him. Lance waited until they were both comfortable before asking him any questions.

 

“So, what did you want to talk about, Hunk?”

 

“Well, I know you’re not going to like it, but it’s about Keith-”

 

“Hunk-”

 

“You guys have been arguing much more lately, and I guess I’m just worried about how this will affect the team - we all are. I mean I’m not just worried about the team of course, I’m worried about you too, bro.” Lance sat in silence as he listened to his best friend talking. He hated to admit it, but he knew that Hunk was right. The arguing had been getting much worse. “I just want to know if there’s anything I can do to help, or if there’s anything you want to tell me,” Hunk placed his hand gently on Lance’s shoulder, “you know you can trust me, right?”

 

Lance was silent for a few moments as he thought of an answer. “Of course I do, Hunk.” He refused to make eye contact and trained his eyes to the floor, “it’s just…I guess everything’s just coming back to me s’all.” Hunk was a little surprised, maybe this was Lance finally opening up.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Well,” Lance started, a little unsure if he should say anything, but Hunk’s look of encouragement told him otherwise. “Early days at the Garrison was great. Everything was going great for me. I was  one of the best students, I had friends - tons of them. I was known everywhere as Lance, _The Tailor,_ ” Lance chuckled to himself, “ _because of how I threaded the needle._ ” Hunk nodded his head. They rarely talked about it, but he did remember when Lance was exclusively known as The Tailor for a time in the Garrison. “Everything was great, Hunk. Really great. Then Keith just had to show me up on the simulator - he just had to do better than me! He always had to look so smug about it, so I decided I would prove him and everyone else wrong. And they laughed at me, Hunk. Remember that? I became the laughing stock of the Garrison!”

 

“I’m sure they didn’t all mean it like that Lance, you still had those kids rooting for you-”

 

“The instructors kept using it as an example of what not to do for _weeks_ Hunk!” Now, that was new. Hunk didn’t know that part of the story.

 

“And then, I was only more determined to try harder, be better than that Kogane kid who ruined it all for me. I practiced whenever I could, and still nothing worked. And all the while, Keith was stealing my fans and my friends!”

 

“Lance, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, buddy, but you did begin to get a little obsessed with the whole rivalry thing you started with him. I think it put some people off.”

 

“But I lost friends because of him-”

 

“If it’s who I think you’re talking about, they were bad news, dude. All they cared about was making friends with who the teachers considered number one.” Lance seemed to deflate at that, even though he knew it for the longest time, being retold that he wasn’t the best anymore seemed to crush his confidence even further. Hunk seemed to pick up on this. “But I think you’re the best, dude. The best fighter pilot to ever enter and leave the Garrison.”

 

“Thanks, man. But that still doesn’t ruin the fact that Keith always had to show up and…”

 

“And? Show up and what? Lance, you’ve been silent for like two minutes dude, you’re worrying me a little there.”

 

Lance froze. It suddenly occurred to him that Keith _rarely_ showed up to anywhere Lance was at the same time, and if he was, it was to practice on the simulators when Lance happened to be there. Lance was the one who purposely showed up when Keith was there, it wasn’t the other way round. 

 

Oh.

 

Keith _rarely_ challenged Lance to anything either. One occasion Lance does remember is Keith saying, ‘not bad, Mcclain’ and he reached out to shake his hand. Lance, still sore from losing yet again, smacked his hand away and marched to his room to not be bothered by Kogane, or anyone else for the rest of the evening. 

 

Oh.

 

Lance remembered all the nights he would train on the simulators, practice everything he could, read every book for the next few months afterwards. Wincing, he also remembered the many times he refused to hang out with his friends - he even forgot one of their birthdays. It wasn’t that Lance was a bad guy, he was just so determined to win, to be the best again and gain the respect he once had that was fading away so fast.

 

“Oh.”

 

“Lance? What’s wrong?”

 

“N-nothing Hunk…I just…”

 

“Lance, are you mad at Keith because you think he took everything away from you?” Lance couldn’t find a way to respond - verbally or otherwise. Hunk placed a comforting hand on his friend’s shoulder, “Lance, it’s not like that at all, you know that, right? But if you guys keep acting like you hate each other, then-”

 

“I don’t hate him, Hunk!” Lance cried out before lowering his tone significantly, avoiding eye contact again with his shocked looking friend, “I never did, Hunk, not at all.”

 

“Then _why_ are you both fighting so much?”

 

“I don’t know, it all started a few weeks ago…after that party with the Grand Princess,” Lance looked up at his friend for a moment before sighing and looking at the floor again, “and I thought we were making a good team, Hunk. I really did.”

 

“I don’t understand Lance, are you mad at him or?” Hunk remained patient with the blue paladin as he threw his hands up in frustration and stood in the middle of his room.

 

“I don’t know! One minute I want to prove him I’m the best and prove he’s not as great as he thinks he is and then the next I - I…” Lance seemed to visibly deflate, seriously doubting if he should continue to speak.

 

“Next you want to what?” Hunk thought for a few moments, his eyebrows creased until they shot up and he looked at Lance with a look of curiosity, and somewhat understanding. “Lance, do you-”

 

“I don’t hate him Hunk I don’t dislike him either, and I should! He’s the reason I didn’t get to become a fighter pilot, my number one dream…”

 

“Lance, that’s okay,” Hunk reassured him, “especially if you, in this case, think you-”

 

“Hunk, I don’t dislike him, and honestly? I can’t decide Hunk, I can’t decide how I feel and that _scares_ me Hunk. It really does.”

 

Hunk hummed in thought for a few moments, allowing Lance to calm down for a second. During the awkward silence, Lance dropped his head into his hands and tensed up.

 

“Ugh, why did I tell you all this? This isn’t, it isn’t…ugh!”

 

“Lance.” Lance raised his head towards the yellow paladin, who was now standing beside him. “You’re obviously feeling a little confused right now with how you’re feeling, and that’s okay, y’know? Sometimes you’re not always sure where you stand with people, or where they stand with you and that’s fine. But the arguing needs to stop Lance,” Lance was about to speak in protest, but Hunk continued to speak, “Seriously, buddy. The occasional banter and challenge is okay here and there, but it’s going to affect the team dynamic as a whole - and we all know how important that is when we need to form Voltron.” Lance nodded his head, looking shameful. “Hey, don’t worry too much about it, dude, but I do need to ask you one question. All I’m asking is that you’re as honest with me as you can.” Lance hated it when Hunk asked him this nicely, it was so hard to lie to someone as sincere as Hunk. Lance gulped and waited for the question, hoping and hoping it wasn’t what he thought it was going to be.

 

“You don’t… _like_ Keith, do you?” Hunk seemed to be hesitant for a moment before realising what he said, “not that that’s a bad thing, Lance! I was just wondering if that’s why you’re acting like this s’all.”

 

Lance was silent, but his deliberate turning away from Hunk with a pout on his face, blazing red cheeks and having his arms crossed seemed to give enough of an answer. Lance buried his head in his hands, trying to hide his blush as Hunk placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.  _Well,_ he thought to himself,  _things are going to get interesting_.


	4. silence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith and Shiro have a conversation, and things get awkward at the dinner table.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay yeesh sorry this took much longer than i expected but here it is! i was totally not expecting the chapter to be as long as this but again i just kept writing more and more so?? here we go.
> 
> apologies for any typos, etc.
> 
> as always, kudos/comments/feedback is always appreciated!
> 
> enjoy x

Hunk, in that moment, decided that it wouldn’t be good for Lance to sit and ponder in his feelings for too much longer. Lance tended to overthink things to a ridiculous extent if he was given enough time to do so.

 

“Alright, buddy,” Hunk started, patting Lance’s shoulder gently, “I think it’s time we got something to eat otherwise you’ll be standing here all night.” Lance didn’t seem to make a response at first, but Hunk waited nevertheless. It was a few more seconds until Lance felt composed enough to look at his best friend in the eyes and nodded silently.

 

“Yeah, sounds like a good plan.”

 

“We can talk on the way there.”

 

“B-but what if someone hears?!”

 

“Dude. Remember the phrases I taught you?”

 

“Yeah..sort of. Why…” Lance’s eyes lit up when he realised where Hunk was going with this, “and you know some of the Spanish I…?” Hunk nodded his head before Lance could finish his question, “great.”

 

The two boys continued their conversation with a mixture of English and a few of the Spanish and Samoan phrases they both knew together. Their sentences started out a little rocky at first, but there was no way anyone would be able to tell what they were saying. And they knew, because it had worked out plenty of times in the Garrison before.

**________________________________**

 

 

“He’s insufferable, Shiro! I don’t know what his problem is with me, but he’s just…ugh!” Keith was pacing in his room, his hands gesturing wildly as he talked. Shiro sat on his bed, listening to the red paladin patiently as he ranted about his self-proclaimed rival.

 

“He’s just what?” Shiro looked at the younger paladin with slight amusement as he angrily paced, his brow furrowing deeper as he talked.

 

“He just…He hasn’t stopped arguing with me all week! I don’t know what I did wrong-”

 

“You know you’ve been arguing with him too?” Shiro interrupted, “You could have easily ignored him or walked away, so you’re not completely innocent,” he didn’t allow Keith to interrupt with another argument before continuing, “and you have been more aggressive with him than usual.” Keith looked away and crossed his arms over his chest.

 

“Well, he’s the one being unreasonable with _me_ , it’s not the other way round.” Shiro was quiet for a moment, considering what the red paladin was saying to him. His cheeks were tinged subtly with red and he was refusing to meet Shiro’s eyes. He had stopped pacing now and his face settled from angry to frustrated confusion.

 

“Keith, if it’s bothering you that much then maybe you should talk to him.” Keith’s posture seemed to stiffen significantly and he stared at Shiro like he’d asked him to go into battle without a weapon. “Come on Keith, it’s not _that_ bad of an idea.” Keith’s facial expression didn’t waver. Shiro was again met with silence. “Keith, we cannot afford for Voltron’s formation to come into jeopardy because you and Lance refuse to talk to each other.” Keith seemed to flinch at his words, not wanting to acknowledge that Shiro was right. The red paladin was well aware that this could eventually have an effect on Voltron, but his and Lance’s arguing had never caused any issues before. But this time  their arguing was…different. Sure, they didn’t get along too well at first, but over time they began forming a friendship. They would constantly use banter with each other and have competitions, but it was all in good humour. But now? It seemed to Keith as if they were both regressing back to when they met when Shiro crash landed on Earth, like they were almost strangers all over again. Keith uncrossed his arms, letting his posture relax a little. He stuck his hands in his pockets, thinking for a moment before he spoke.

 

“I don’t know what’s going on, Shiro,” Keith started, not sure if he wanted to continue talking. He half hoped that what he had said was enough. Shiro, however, had other plans and it looked as if he wanted Keith to talk some more but he had the patience to sit through the awkward silence before he said anything. Keith searched his memories for where the problems between him and Lance started.

 

“Can you think back to when this all started Keith?” The red paladin wished he could have answered, but trying to figure out in his head was like trying to find a see-through fish in murky waters. Keith sat down on the bed and kept his eyes trained on his boots, taking in each detail of the patterns and colours whilst simultaneously trying to think of a decent answer to give Shiro.

 

“We’ll work it out, Shiro,” the teen finally decided on saying, avoiding eye-contact with his leader. He could feel Shiro’s eyebrow raise at him, with an unconvinced expression on his face.

 

“That’s not quite the answer I was looking for,” Shiro started to rise from his seat, “but I’m glad that you’re going to try and work this out with Lance.” He made his way to Keith’s room door, ready to make his exit but not before leaving Keith with some words of leadenly wisdom. “You never know, this might really help to strengthen the bond between you two. I think you’ll both become a really good team after this.” Keith gazed up at Shiro and gave him eye contact for the first time in about twenty minutes. “I trust you, Keith.” And with that, Keith was the only one left in the room. He remained silent and stared at his boots for a few moments before groaning in exasperation and flopping himself back on his bed, his hands overing his face. He hated it when Shiro used the ‘I trust you to complete this task you hate’ mini-speech, because it usually followed up with a father-like look of disappointment if he failed to do whatever task without at least some effort. Keith shifted until he was fully lying on his bed, and then flipped over so he could pull out his knife and inspect the designs as he mulled over his conversation with Shiro. He snorted quietly at the nickname ‘spacedad’ that had been awarded to Shiro by Lance, after a rather parent-like speech he was given at the dinner table. Needless to say, it rendered Shiro speechless for the better half of an hour until he could compose himself enough to say, ‘Just call me Shiro.’ Allura had found it quite amusing and endearing that the rest of the paladins thought of Shiro as a ‘father figure to look up to as well as a leader’, which sent the rest of the group into hysterics. Keith notices in the reflection in his knife that he was smiling.

 

_Not the first time I smiled because of Lance - WOAH. Okay, where did that come from?_

 

Keith stopped looking at his knife for a moment and blinked, hoping it would erase the thought that just passed. He resumed to looking at his knife again, looking at the way the blade curved, the design, the symbol…he turned his thoughts back to the conversation. As much as he hated to admit it, the red paladin knew that he needed to sort out what was going on between him and Lance before things got really out of hand. It would maybe be a good idea to talk to him tonight instead of leaving it any longer. But, what did he say? Keith placed his knife underneath his pillow before flipping onto his back, putting his hands behind his head and sighing loudly. He would need to give a reason for why he was more irritated with Lance than usual. First question: Was he irritated with Lance? Yes. Most definitely. What did Lance do that was so annoying? Well, the answer to that was going to be more difficult. He was always doing things that could be deemed as ‘annoying’ but they never seemed to bother Keith much at all, actually, he could even say he welcomed Lance’s crazy antics at times since it was better than sitting in a giant castle with little to no activities to partake in when Galra activity was at a low. It also made things seem a little less…strange. Keith concluded that most of the time he did enjoy when he and the others acted like reckless teenagers who could run around and joke and laugh with each other, it helped to ease the pain of being so far away from Earth without the certainty they would be back soon - or at all. And mostly, he had Lance to thank for that.

 

 _Speak of the devil…_ Keith sat up at the sound of someone walking past his room, and once the person began to speak he realised immediately the voice belonged to the blue paladin. _Better now than never_ , the red paladin thought to himself as he quickly shot out of his bed and opened his door to speak to the person occupying his thoughts, he might as well get his all out of the way now and think about what he was going to say later. The words would surely just come to him, right?

 

“Oh, hey Keith. We’re just heading to dinner, do you want to come?” Keith’s eyes trailed up to Hunk. _Oh_. He didn’t realise Hunk was with Lance. _Guess I’ll have to do this later, I could just ask him if we could talk-_ speaking of Lance, he wasn’t looking too good. His eyes were downcast, shoulders hunched and stiff with a prominent frown etched on his features. Very un-Lancelike.

 

“Um, sure.” Keith walked with the boys up to the dining hall in an unbearable tense silence.

 

“So,” Hunk emphasised the ‘o’ sound and wore a friendly expression, “how’re things for you?”

 

“Good, I guess. I’ve been training and,” Keith tried to think of something interesting to say, “y’know. Stuff.” Nice one, Keith.

 

“That sounds cool.”

 

“Yeah, I guess.” The silence that followed was tangible.

 

“Well,” If Hunk was straining against the tension in the room, Keith wouldn’t have been able to tell, “let’s go get some food. I’m starved! Oh, so I found this really cool plant on the last planet we were on and depending on the way you cook it it can either be sweet or savory…” Hunk continued to ramble about the new plants he found on his way to the kitchen as Keith and Lance both trailed silently beside him. Keith stole a glance towards Lance, who didn’t appear any more cheery or Lance-like (that’s what he was calling it now) than when he looked at him 10 seconds ago. Strange. There was not much more time to ponder on it as the three boys made it into the dining hall where Shiro, Allura, Coran and Pidge were already seated.

 

“Ah, good! Everyone’s here,” Coran started as he enthusiastically leapt out his seat, “now that you’re all here, I can serve dinner.” The altean ushered the three standing boys to their seats and brought food out as her talked, Hunk found the Trefu plant which is native to the last planet we visited, and we’ve been able to make a range of delicious and nutritious meals for you all.” Everyone at the table quietly thanked Coran and allowed him to ramble on about the history of the planet and his grandfather’s adventures there. Dinner seemed to go on smoothly, except for the awkward tension between the blue and red paladin.

 

“Um Keith, could you pass the-” Lance pointed over at the seasoning on the other side of the table that was too far for him to reach, glancing nervously at Keith.

 

“Oh?” Keith snapped out his trance-like state of staring at Coran as he continued the story of his grandfather’s grand adventures, and looked over at Lance, “W-what did you say?” His mouth seemed drier than usual which made his words sound more quiet and nervous than he would have liked. Lance made the mistake of making direct eye contact with Keith. The blue paladin visibly tensed and retracted his hand from where he was pointing and swiftly turned his head towards his plate, eyes boring into the meal before him.

 

“N-nothing, nevermind.” The two boys attempted and failed miserably at trying to communicate with each other, not wanting to say the wrong thing and so after that, the silence between them was thick. The chatter among the table continued until the tense silence between the boys garnered the attention of everyone else at the table. Pidge gave a low whistle and made a comment about what nice weather they were having, desperate for a distraction.

 

“Well, there’s not much variety in weather when we’re in space, Pidge,” Hunk commented, his calmer exterior not giving away the fact he was frantically thinking of a new conversation topic that would get either Keith or Lance to talk because the silence was getting unbearable. Even Coran was beginning to look uncomfortable. After what seemed like an eternity, Hunk finally thought he had a way to coax Lance out of his silence.

 

“So Lance, buddy, what do you think of the new recipe?” Hunk widened his eyes at Lance, silently pleading with him to engage at least somewhat with the conversation. Lance looked up at his friend with eyes that didn’t quite have quite the same sparkle to them, they seemed dazed and distracted. Lance suddenly took note of the silence around the table and visibly stiffened before hunching his shoulders, leaning closer into himself.

 

“It’s uh…good. Really good Hunk.” Lance sighed and stole another glance at Keith before he went back to looking at his food, not having much of an appetite. Hunk looked up and appeared to be making a silent prayer before looking at Pidge. The two seemed to have a silent conversation with their heads and eyes to see what they should do. On the other side of the table, Shiro suppressed his urge to walk out of the room by giving Allura and Coran an apologetic smile. Coran cleared his throat about five times before he began to almost choke and had to excuse himself from the table to get a drink of water, taking his near empty plate with him. It was safe to say he probably wasn’t coming back.

 

“So Keith!” Keith jumped slightly and looked up at Pidge on the other side of table. Her eyes were wide and she had a forced grin, and overall her far too enthusiastic attitude was freaking Keith out a little. “So how’s that training going, huh? Must be going great.” Keith nodded.

 

“Um, yeah, it’s going pretty good.”

 

“You must be flying through all the levels, huh? I mean not literally flying through them because that’s not physically possible to fly through a level, I mean a level isn’t even-” Hunk let out a loud ‘ahem’ to signal to Pidge to be quiet and let Keith talk, who looked more unnerved now.

 

“Well, not exactly, I…y’know, I think I do pretty normally. But I’ve been doing good…yeah, I started a new level last week.” Hunk seemed to be holding his breath, maybe finally this was going to lead to a new conversation topic. Pidge stared at Keith, expecting him to say more but deflated into her seat when she realised that was everything he was going to say. She was going to save this conversation if it was the last thing she did tonight.

 

“Oh, what level is that then?”

 

“Um, level 5…”

 

“Nice one, Keith.” Hunk gave his friend a thumbs up.

 

“Y-yes!” Allura was suddenly relieved at the start of  new conversation topic, “It’s good to see you’re making progress individually as well as a team,” out of curiosity, the princess asked, “so what level are you all currently on with your individual training?”

 

Hunk and Pidge both said four in unison.

 

“Well, good to see you’re not too far apart in levels, it might be good for you two to get some extra practice in then so we’re all at the same level.” Shiro stated, and the yellow and green paladin nodded. Shiro turned over to Lance who was now more slouched in his seat than before. “Lance? What about you?”

 

“I mean I almost got to level 5! It was just that bit at the end and I…” Lance’s voice was quiet when he mumbled out “four”. The table seemed to go quiet again. _Oh, come on,_ Hunk was mentally screaming now he was left scraping at the bottom of a barrel for a conversation topic that _wasn’t_ going to make things worse.

 

“That’s still good, Lance!” Hunk chimed in, “How far away from you from completing the level? Like ten per cent? That’s still really good.” Hunk turned to Shiro, “Don’t you think?” Hunk’s was mentally begging for Shiro to say the right thing.

 

“Yes, Lance. You’re making good progress. In fact, you all are,” Shiro had a small smile of approval on his face, “like I said though, it would be good if the three of you could catch up on Keith.” Hunk’s  hopeful expression dropped into one of dread and Lance seemed to sink further into his seat. Pidge and Keith looked quizzically over at Lance whilst Allura, unaware of this, nodded in agreement with Shiro. “Once we’re all at the same level, different exercises can be unlocked and…”

 

Shiro continued to talk as Lance’s gaze never wavered from his dinner plate, his appetite fading more and more each second. Of course. Of course he always had to be catching up to Keith, he always had to be behind. How could he even call himself a rival if he never won anything? _But Keith didn’t do anything_ , Lance thought to himself, _but it’s not fair! He always needs to win, to be better but…_ Lance found himself utterly and completely lost between the thoughts of his pride for Keith, he wanted the red paladin do well. But, he was so sick of never feeling good enough around him and being compared to him. But would that ever change? Wouldn’t be always be behind? Even since the beginning, if it wasn’t for Keith dropping out, he would have been a cargo pilot, cargo pilot, _cargo pilot, cargo pilot…_

 

“Lance? Lance?” Keith tapped Lance on the arm which made him almost jump out his seat and yell in surprise.

 

“What do you want, Mullet?” Lance snapped, sounding harsher than he intended, but he was too tired to correct himself.

 

“You kept repeating the words ‘cargo pilot’ to yourself. Are you okay?” Lance felt everyone’s eyes on him and a very soft, barely audible ‘oh no’ come from Hunk. With trembling hands, Lance pushes his chair out from under the seat and left the dining hall, unable to meet anyone’s eyes and ignoring Keith calling him back. Keith guiltily turned around to look at everyone else at the table.

 

“I didn’t mean to make him run off like that,” Keith started, his voice quiet, “I can- I can go apologise…”

 

“Is…Lance okay?” Pidge looked at Hunk with a worried expression on her face and Hunk looked back at her with a frown on worry on his own face.

 

“I don’t think talking to him now would be a good idea, Keith,” Hunk suggested, “I think you need to wait until he calms down.” The yellow paladin turned to the youngest paladin, “he’ll be fine, Pidge. It’s just…He’s just going through a rough time just now. Just needs to sort some stuff out.”

 

“Is there anything we could do for him in the meantime? It would not be good for any of us to be in low spirits for too long,” the princess enquired.

 

“I don’t think there’s much we could do just now, princess,” Shiro answered, looking towards the dining room door, “we just need to wait until he’s ready to talk to us for now.” The princess nodded her head in acknowledgement and gave a low hum as she thought for a moment.

 

“I see. Could one of you tell me what he meant by ‘cargo’ pilot? I know on Altea we had different kinds of pilots but I’m not sure if the word ‘cargo’ directly translates into Altean.” Allura’s innocent question seemed to cause an even more tense atmosphere in the room, with the worry radiating from Hunk and Pidge in waves. “Oh, I hope I did not offend any of you? Is this particular word not appropriate to say?”

 

“No no, Allura, it’s nothing like that,” Pidge started, “it’s a type of pilot who takes things like equipment or something from one place to another.” Allura thought for a moment before humming and nodding her head.

 

“Ah, our word for that would be a Yughja pilot. They were very reliable in Altea.”

 

“Yes, they were. Exceptionally clever if I do say so myself. I do recall that my grandfather’s friend’s brother was one. Fascinating man.” Coran chimed in, startling everyone else in the room.

 

“Well, now that we have that established. Would you mind telling me why the position of a Yughja or ‘cargo’ pilot seems to be an issue?”

 

“Well…” Hunk began, “At our flight school, the Garrison, Lance was a cargo pilot. Not that there was a problem with it or anything, he would have been an amazing cargo pilot,” he stopped for a moment with a doubtful look on his face, “I’m not sure if I should say anything else. I don’t want to make Lance more upset.”

 

“But he’s not here,” Pidge said, adjusting her glasses, “and if he needs our help, you need to say it Hunk.”

 

“But it’s not for me to say Pidge-”

 

“But if you told us the actual problem then we could-”

 

“Wait.” Keith waited until he had the attention of everyone else in the room. “Lance said he wasn’t a fighter pilot until I flunked out the Garrison,” Keith placed a hand on his chin as he spoke and looked downwards as the gears were turning in his head. After a quiet moment he looked back up at Hunk with an earnest look on his features. “Is he upset because of me?” Keith didn’t need a verbal answer from the look that Hunk returned. The paladins, princess and royal advisor all sat in silence at this new revelation of information. Keith, unable to take anymore silence stepped up from his chair and walked out of the room as he spoke.

 

“I’ll speak to him tonight - sort this all out.”

 


	5. talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was time that Keith decided enough was enough. He needed to speak to Lance.
> 
> Unfortunately for Keith, these things are far from easy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heyy it's been a while! apologies for the slow update, but here we are - final chapter!!
> 
> if i'm being totally honest, i'm not 100% happy with the way i did this chapter and may change it later - but i also like the way it's been resolved too. i guess the one thing i've been trying to put across in this story is the fact that sometimes can seem a little messy but good things can still come around. apologies for any typos/errors.
> 
> i will be working on new stories and updating incomplete stories soon hopefully!! (if you have any prompts/ideas feel free to comment any down below. constructive criticism/feedback is also appreciated)
> 
> anywayys, with all that being said, i hope you guys all enjoy x
> 
> \- - -

Okay, so maybe it hadn’t been entirely true when Keith said that he would speak to Lance that night. Or that week. But hey, give the guy a break - he was working up to it. Not only that, every opportune moment seemed to be ruined by a distress signal, a galra attack or something more trivial.

 

Tonight, however? No more distractions. Tonight was the night that he would speak to Lance and sort this all out. No doubt the poor boy was feeling even worse than he did that awkward dinner. So it was no surprise when Lance practically jumped out of his bed in alarm when Keith stormed into his room with a deep frown on his face and his fists clenched as if he was ready to fight someone twice his size.

 

“H-hey man! How can I help you?” Lance quickly stood up and wrung his hands nervously, keeping his distance from the frustrated looking teen before him.

 

“We need to talk.” Okay, so that might have come out harsher than he intended. So Keith relaxed his tense shoulders, put his hands in his pockets and wore a more calm expression on his face. “About, about…well, um. You know. Last week.”

 

“Oh.” Did they _have_ to talk about this? Why did Keith have to bring this up now, or at all. Actually, Lance would have preferred if everyone pretended that the conversation that took place never happened. However, Lance was not given that luxury as he noticed the sympathetic glances he got from his other teammates - particularly Hunk. He didn’t miss the not-so-subtle attempt from Shiro (or the others, save for Keith who had gone more silent than usual) to be extra encouraging to Lance during training either. He absolutely appreciated it, but it would be nice if they just didn’t bring it up altogether.

 

“I…” Despite having a week to think through what he was going to say, Keith couldn’t really find the words to make this conversation any easier. “I want to apologise.”

 

“For what?”

 

“For,” he made a wide gesture with his hands, “this. I should have apologised that night. That wasn’t fair…to you, I mean.” Lance’s eyebrows raised in surprise at that.

 

“It’s cool, man. We got busy-”

 

“That’s no excuse, Lance!” Keith clenched his fists again, trying to steady himself and not run out of steam while he was still trying to apologise. “I should have said something to you, I know things haven’t,” he hesitated, “been exactly great between us but we’re a team. We need to talk to each other.” He made himself step closer to Lance. “Isn’t that what you always told me?”

 

“Yeah.” Lance stood up and shoved his hands in his pockets, not quite able to meet Keith’s eyes. “I did. But, still, it doesn’t matter now so-”

 

“Lance, no.” Keith’s tone was firm and his slight frown deepened. “Let me do this, okay?” His look became one of pleading, and Lance couldn’t find it to say no. So with a silent nod, he let him continue.

 

“And I’m sorry for mentioning about you saying ‘cargo pilot’, I wasn’t thinking. I was just worried I guess,” Lance didn’t miss the way Keith looked to the side and his cheeks turned a very faint pink. “And I didn’t know how much that bothered you.” Lance had a small smile on his face, happy that Keith had actually been concerned about him.

 

“Well, that’s my fault.” Lance finally spoke up, causing Keith’s head to whip around until he was looking directly at him. “I shouldn’t have let our ‘rivalry’ thing get to me.” 

 

_What am I saying, what am I saying? Stop now stop now, this is too much-_

 

“I…thought about it, Keith.”

 

_Lance, you’d better stop right now or-_

 

“None of that was your fault.”

 

_You’re going to look weak! Do you have any idea how badly this could go-_

 

“It.”

 

_You’ve said too much. You don’t need to admit anything to him. As if he would care._

 

“It…was mine.”

 

Keith just stared at Lance.

 

“What?”

 

Lance gulped. No point in holding back now.

 

“It was my fault. All of it. The rivalry, the arguing, all of it. My fault.”

 

“Lance. You can’t blame yourself for everything.”

 

“But it _was_ me, Keith. I got jealous when we were at the Garrison.” The word ‘jealousy’ tasted like something sour on his tongue. “I was the one that challenged you. I wanted to show you up. I didn’t want to lose everything I’d had.”

 

“I, um…” Keith couldn’t really find any words to argue, so he let Lance speak more. To be honest, he didn’t look as if he’d be able to stop talking until he was done.

 

“I really wanted to become a fighter pilot. It had been my dream for so long. But you just kept getting better, and I felt like I was getting worse - so I wanted to prove to you that I could do it. To everyone. It didn’t help that instructors kept making me the bad example not to follow. They always brought up my mistakes during class.”

 

Keith blinked. He didn’t know that.

 

“And then the big tests were coming closer and I- things got worse. I ended up pushing people away. I got better grades, better scores but I lost friends too. My popularity, gone. I became a joke.” Lance’s shoulders dropped and his voice dropped into almost a whisper. “And it was all my fault.” 

 

Keith wanted to do nothing more than assure Lance that he was good enough. He never had to push as far as he did to prove himself. 

 

“And you know, I hoped we’d become better friends since the Garrison - and we were! Well,” Lance’s gaze dropped to his shoes, “I guess I was wrong. I messed that up too.”

 

“Lance, stop that. It’s not just your fault. I shouldn’t have been so aggressive with you, I shouldn’t have been so harsh.” Keith crossed his arms and looked at the wall.

 

“But I shouldn’t have snapped so much at you.”

 

“Well, I shouldn’t have gotten so jealous at that party, I-” 

 

Keith clamped his hand over his mouth. As his head whipped round to look in Lance’s direction, Lance’s wide eyes were already on his. The red paladin felt his cheeks redden and his legs ready to bolt out of the room.

 

“What.”

 

“I - I said nothing important, it was-”

 

“Jealous? Of me? How could you be…” Lance was so confused at how Keith could be jealous of _him_ of all people. And the party? He must have been talking about the Grugard. _Ah, Princess Kilhael_. That made a lot of sense. Keith must have been jealous that the princess didn’t even glance at him while she was completely enamoured with the blue paladin.

 

“Oh.” Lance’s racing heart seemed to slow. “I’m sorry about Princess Kilhael. If it’s any consolation, I wasn’t even interested if…”

 

Keith raised his eyebrows at Lance as if to say _what?_ He thought for a moment before finally rolling his eyes and dragging his hand down his face in what seemed to be a mixture of exasperation and embarrassment.

 

“No, Lance. I…that’s not what I meant.” When Keith looked at Lance again, his facial expression was unreadable.

 

“What do you mean then?” Lance stood up straighter and placed his hands in his pockets, the slight movement from them giving away his nerves.

 

“I…” Keith wanted to stop. This was a bad idea. This was a code red conversation. He should say that he needs to speak to Shiro and leave - no. He had to do this; better to rip the bandaid off quick. “Okay, you’re right. I was jealous when the princess spoke to you.”

 

“I already told you, I wasn’t interested in her Keith.”

 

“It wasn’t- It wasn’t… _ARGH_!” Keith turned around and covered his hands with his face, trying to get the words out but there just wasn’t any way that sounded right.

 

“Hey man,” Lance placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, “don’t worry about it, okay? It’s okay if you liked the princess, honestly, you don’t need to cover it up.”

 

“ _Lance_.” Keith crossed his arms again and his cheeks were pinker than usual, still not looking at the blue paladin. “I was jealous of the _princess…”_

 

 _But_ …Lance removed his hand and thought for a moment. _That doesn’t make sense_.

 

“…Not you.”

 

Oh.

 

Lance’s eyebrows raised. 

 

 _Oh_.

 

Lance’s eyebrows raised even further.

 

 _Ooh_.

 

Lance’s cheeks turned very red very quickly.

 

“Oh.”

 

Time seemed to stop in that moment and the two older teens couldn’t move from their place. Minutes seemed to tick by when it was only seconds, and the silence that permeated the room was nothing like they’d ever experienced. The fragile stillness and silence was broken when Lance took in a deep breath, exhaled and stepped forward to take Keith’s wrist in his hand. 

 

“I…” he heard Keith’s breath hitch and tried to ignore it. “I’m sorry for the way I was acting before. I’m sorry I was jealous, I…don’t hate you, I don’t dislike you. I never did.” _I never could_. “I’m pretty amazed by you actually.”  Keith was staring at Lance now, a disbelieving look on his face. “You’ve always been so cool Keith - and even now, you do all these amazing things like flying into black holes and stuff and…” Keith’s expression softened significantly and turned his body around so he was facing Lance.

 

“I’m sorry too. I wasn’t much better. I shouldn’t have gotten so annoyed at you. I was jealous and I took it out on you…And,” He held Lance’s other wrist with his free hand and gave the other boy a smirk, “you’re pretty cool too.” Lance let out a small chuckle.

 

“Keith?”

 

“Mhmm?”

 

“I’d have been jealous too - at that party.”

 

“Oh.” Keith shifted his hand until he was holding Lance’s. He heard the other’s breath hitch and saw his cheeks turn an even deeper shade of red, slowly moving his hand until they were both holding hands. The red paladin let out a soft chuckle and they stood for a few moments looking into each other’s eyes.

 

“Keith…I don’t think I can do this.”

 

“What?” Keith felt his heart drop to his stomach.

 

“I…I know how I feel about you but, sometimes I just…remember that you’re so,” Lance trailed off.

 

“So?”

 

“I can’t ever catch up to you! I…I couldn’t at the Garrison, and I can’t here. I’m- I’m always a step behind,” Lance could feel tears welling up in his eyes, “and I- I’m just-”

 

“Stop. Lance, please listen to me.” Keith held Lance’s hands tighter. “Sure, you might not have been the best pilot in the Garrison, but you were always a good pilot.” Lance was ready to interject, but Keith continued talking. “You didn’t have to go to the extra mile to prove anything. They shouldn’t have made you feel like you were any less than that.” Lance looked at Keith, almost dumbfounded. 

 

“And can I remind you that you’re a great sharpshooter, no, amazing? So what if you didn’t get to level five in that last training simulation? That was _close combat_ training Lance. You’re not going around hitting enemies with your gun, now are you?” Keith gave Lance a fond smile. “I might be better at close combat, but you show all of us up in long range, you’re _our_ sharpshooter. That’s,” he held up their hands, “that’s why we’re such a good team.”

 

Lance was silent for what seemed like ages until he wore a watery smile and let go of Keith’s hands to wrap him up in a warm embrace, which Keith soon returned.

 

“Thank you, Keith.”

 

“No problem.”

 

“So…”

 

“So?”

 

“Where do we go from here?” 

 

That was a good question. As much as the thought of dating was amazing, they had Voltron to focus on. They had to focus on saving the universe. Would they have time to date? Would they have time for each other? Would the others approve of this, or would they say it could cause a risk to the team? What if Zarkon or another enemy found out and tried to use it to their advantage?

 

“That’s a good question,” Keith raised his head to look at Lance, “this is nice.”

 

“Yeah. It is.” Lance’s smile widened. “How about next time we land on a planet, we take a picnic? We could hold hands, watch the sun set…”

 

“Sounds cheesy.” Keith replied with a smirk.

 

“Hey!”

 

“I like it. Sounds like a nice date.”

 

“Yeah…” Lance placed his arms around Keith’s waist, “a really nice date.”

 

It wasn’t going to be easy for the both of them, and the two paladins both knew that. Trying to maintain a relationship whilst defending the universe was no easy task. But they both knew that they’d pull through. They might not get to spend a lot of time together like regular couples, but every space date or quiet time together would be extra special. 

 

“Hey, Keith, Do you work for NASA? Because you're out of this world.” Keith snorted then let out a small laugh, rolling his eyes.

 

“Is this what’s going to happen if we start dating?”

 

“Yes. Only the best pick up lines for my favourite Mullet.” Lance held onto Keith’s hands again. “That’s not going to be a problem, is it?” He said with a cheeky grin.

 

 

Lance looked into Keith’s deep violet eyes, wondering how he’d managed to get so lucky and finally get to date this wonderful mystery boy. Before he could find out, however, they heard Hunk’s voice through the hallway.

 

“Alright guys! Time for dinner.”

 

“No.” Keith almost whispered. “It’s cute.” Before Lance could respond to that, he dashed to the dining hall, yelling “see you at dinner”.

 

Lance stood in his place, bright-eyed and a large toothy grin on his features. He let out a small content sigh.

 

Today was going _great_.

 

 

 

END.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and that's it!! i'm all finished this story. thanks to everyone for reading! and thanks so much for all the comments and kudos i received, it's all very encouraging for me :) 
> 
> one thing i tried to convey (continuation from earlier notes) was the fact that yeah, lance might still have issues with self esteem, but keith and the others will be there to encourage him all the way (and keith will fight anyone who tries to put lance down or compare him to lance in a negative way). and when keith's struggling, lance (and the team) will be there for him too. 
> 
> this is the part i'd tell you to come see any other stuff i'm doing on tumblr, but i don't have one lol (maybe i'll make one if enough people want me to)


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